December, 2009
EQT set for €2.3bn Springer deal
EQT, the private equity arm of Sweden’s Wallenberg family, is set to announce on Thursday the €2.3bn takeover of Springer Science and Business Media. The deal ends a tortuous sales process by its two UK private-equity owners,
Lachlan Murdoch buys Nielsen assets
Lachlan Murdoch’s Illyria is poised to announce the purchase of most of Nielsen Business Media, publisher of the Hollywood Reporter, by as early as Thursday, reports Bloomberg. Murdoch, 38, is joining with US-based Pluribus Capital Management in bidding for assets of the unit of Nielsen,
Hershey nears Cadbury decision
Hershey and the trust that controls it are near a final decision to bid on rival candy maker Cadbury, reports the WSJ. Hershey is wary of sacrificing its investment-grade credit rating should it buy Cadbury,
US halts TCW Group fund
Upheaval continued to plague TCW Group, the LA-based asset manager, after the US Treasury halted one of the group’s high-profile funds and some senior employees loyal to deposed investment chief Jeffrey Gundlach defected,
ECB warns Greece, eurozone weakens
Greece has been warned by a top European Central Bank policymaker that it has a year to bring public finances back under control or risk having its bonds disqualified for use as collateral by banks borrowing ECB liquidity.
Overnight markets: Down
Asian stocks fell on Thursday, reports Bloomberg, led by Japan’s automakers on speculation further gains in the yen will hurt export earnings, and Chinese property developers on Beijing’s move to curb property speculation.
Bank of America’s $45bn cheque to the Treasury
As expected, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has joined the likes of JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in repaying US taxpayers’ their hard-earned Tarp-allocated cash.
Bank of America today sent the U.S.
Petropavlovsk misses out
It seems a few of London’s brokers need to brush up on their knowledge of the FTSE UK ground rules.
Had these City types glanced at rules 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3, they would have known that new shares are only eligible for inclusion in an index review if the allotment total mores 10 per cent of the existing share capital.
CDS report: Sovereigns continue to dominate
Gavan Nolan of Markit wrote this CDS report
European credit spreads continued to widen today as sovereigns took yet more punishment. The Markit iTraxx Europe index widened by nearly 3bp to 84.25bp, underperforming lower stock markets and other credit indices.
Bonus post on the bonus tax
The friendly reader who earlier provided us with a quick spreadsheet on the impact of the UK’s tax on bankers’ bonuses has mailed in a correction: he’d missed the fact that the bonus tax only kicks in above £25,000.
The Palm is NOT sinking, says Nakheel
While we’d heard rumours from industry sources that the Palm Jumeirah might be sinking into the seabed, FT Alphaville never had any evidence to support them.
Nor could we corroborate rumours that questionable building standards in Dubai had led to cracks and window damage in many of the emirate’s new property developments.
Principals, forgiveness and a reborn Hamp?
Tuesday provided a veritable bonanza of info for any one following the US Treasury’s increasingly curious forays into mortgage modification.
The US House Financial Services Committee met to discuss the government’s response to the mortgage foreclosure crisis,
UK PBR – recipe for a downgrade?
Analyst reaction to the UK’s pre-Budget report, announced on Wednesday, has begun to make its way into the FT Alphaville inbox.
Here’s a small selection, starting with Monument Securities’ Marc Ostwald,
Are you a banker?
Not sure if you classify as a banker in the eyes of the UK government? Scared you might be subject to Alistair Darling’s 50 per cent levy on banker bonuses even though you work at a hedge fund?
Well here’s some from detail from HMT on exactly who might fall under the very generic term of “banker”:
Better at football – and sovereign risk
One of the charts below shows 5-year credit default swaps for Portugal – land of Cristiano Ronaldo and pastries. The other is for the UK.
—-
Can you spot the difference?
UK CDS is now wider (at 77.40bp) than that of Portugal (at 75.85bp).
Banker tax – further details (updated with bonus maths)
From page 48 of the pre-Budget report, unveiled on Wednesday (emphasis ours):
Box 3.2: Banking Bonuses
The Government attaches great importance to tackling the remuneration practices that contributed to excessive risk taking by the banking industry.
Banker tax unveiled
From the pre-Budget report, via Reuters:
DARLING – WILL CHARGE BANKS 50 PCT TAX RATE ON STAFF BONUSES OVER £25,000
DARLING – TAX ON BANK BONUSES EXPECTED TO YIELD £550m
And from FT.com:
The Treasury estimates that the move – which comes into immediate effect and runs until April 5 next year – will affect 20,000 bankers.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Wednesday morning,
- Greece is the word…
- There goes δομημένη χρηματοδότηση.
- The not-so-expected Hellenic impacts.
- A closer look inside Nakheel.
Markets live transcript 9 Dec 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:17 on 9 Dec 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Bryce Elder (BE)
NH:
Hola
NH:
its PBR day
PBR preview, bankers’ bonus edition
We all know the chancellor is going to announce a bankers’ bonus tax in Wednesday’s pre-Budget report. What we don’t know are the details; Things like the level at which the tax will kick in and whether it will be levied on bonus pools or individual bonuses.
Cracks in the Granite
Two things happened on Tuesday in the world of Granite — Northern Rock’s massive master trust mortgage securitisation vehicle.
First, the UK Treasury finalised its planned restructuring of Northern Rock.
Greece is the word…
. . . on the lips of traders Wednesday morning:
Financials:
Bonds:
*GREEK 10-YEAR GOVERNMENT BONDS FALL; YIELD RISES TO 5.40%
GREEK-GERMAN 10-YR BOND YIELD SPREAD WIDENS 4 BPS TO 225 BPS
CDS:
Tokyo goes for the ‘biggest bang from its yen’
More action in Japan — this time with a mega Y7,200bn ($81bn) stimulus package which seems to have flummoxed more than a few economists.
In fact, after the spending plan was unveiled by the Hatoyama government on Tuesday,
A closer look inside Nakheel
Nakheel’s unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements for the six months ended 30 June 2009 have become available on the Nasdaq Dubai website.
Unfortunately the formatting is not suited to copy and pasting.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Wednesday,
- A Bond Vigilantes Christmas quiz.
- Why homes aren’t investments.
- “Financial News just named me one of the Rising Stars of European Financial Markets under 40- the youngest one ever 
”